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Topic: Question About Zombies! (Read 640 times)

I'm currently developing a story about zombies and I neded some feedback. In the Romero films, the Zombies return to places that are important to them. My friend seems to think that this idea first came up in the "I am Legend" novel. (yes, they're vampies, but zombie like..) My question is this, is the idea of returning to a place specific to one creator, or is this accpted Zombie "lore" at this point?

Any thoughts or examples of this showing up in other movies/books would be great.---Mike

Romero has always said that he ripped off Matheson's I Am Legend for his zombie films well mostly for Night of the Living Dead. In all the zombie movies I've seen, Romero's (and I think Zach Snyder's Dawn remake) are the only ones that mention the "returning to places that meant something to them" idea.

According to legend, the zombies created by voodoo priests were created to serve as slaves. If you gave one of these zombies salt they'd relize they were dead and return to their graves. There was a caution on this though as once they realized they were dead they would either devour those in their way back to the grave or simple trample them in transit. I'm a bit cloudy on that. One would assume that if a zombie actually had a destination in mind to head to it would be a place they were fond of but aren't they for the most part just on the hunt for food? I always assumed that the zombies in most zombie flicks were just going where the dinner bell drove them since they would most likely be unable to think in reality. Just mindless munchers. In Let Sleeping corpses lie (which is the only title I know it by offhand, it has many) the zombies are pretty much mindless corpses risen by a horticulture experiment to kill bugs. In Gates of Hell they're risen to serve a priest who commits suicide and opens a gate to hell so their just out to destroy the world. I know Romero had a solid following but there are a lot of Italian directors who tackled this subject too. Many of those movies even banned. There was even a flick in the 70's simple called Zombies that had a lot of problems. Check IMDB for some more info and other ideas. Why work on fleshing out Romero's ideas when you can mesh up a bunch of others or just create a fresh one?

I know this isn't what you were looking for but could be usefull in creating your mythos for your story.

Thanks---you know, I didn't really in love that idea, but I wasn't sure of the origin of it. The thing that might drive my story is that the zombies are obsessed with the activity they were doing. or trying to do, when they were made undead!

I'm currently developing a story about zombies and I neded some feedback. In the Romero films, the Zombies return to places that are important to them. My friend seems to think that this idea first came up in the "I am Legend" novel. (yes, they're vampies, but zombie like..) My question is this, is the idea of returning to a place specific to one creator, or is this accpted Zombie "lore" at this point?

Any thoughts or examples of this showing up in other movies/books would be great.---Mike

That was certainly the case in Dawn of the Dead, but not sure that I saw Zombies return to places important to them in his other flicks. I would put it more that they retain a certain sense of self somewhere latent in whatever's left of their brain. In fact, if you read the Marvel Zombies comics, the super hero types actually lose their hunger momentarily and regain a sense of clarity after they feed, but are quickly overcome by hunger again. If you're looking for a story idea, I like that concept and haven't seen it elsewhere...

The zombies in NotLD didn't return to anything important to them however. Dawn they did, sorta... I've always felt though that they'd go to anyplace that had food at it (IE: survivors). Why did they swarm other areas ya know?

The whole "things that meant something to them" was really only prevelant in Land of the Dead... It seemed more coincidental like they just swarm where they think they can get something to eat. That's just how I always looked at it though.

And if you ever want to come to Pittsburgh to check out the Romero locales, I can be a tour guide. Monroeville Mall's still a routine stop for me, and I can show ya where everything was/is. I miss the Brown Derbie there so bad. It rocked.